[GodGunsGuts]

Not so fast. There is no fossil evidence for a single trunk. As Stephen Jay Gould explains, the evidence points in the opposite direction:

The history of most fossil species include two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism:

1) Stasis - most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually limited and directionless;

2) Sudden appearance - in any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and ‘fully formed’.

Gould, S.J. (1977)
“Evolution’s Erratic Pace”
Natural History, vol. 86, May

[RightWhale]

Stasis - most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth.

They would remain in their form since they are fully evolved as such. Every species we see on earth now is fully evolved and would not exhibit directional change. If something evolves from that it would be a new species.

[ThinkClearly]

Gould, S.J.

If you're familiar with Gould's work, perhaps you're also familiar with the fact that that quote is taken from his work on the theory of punctuated equilibrium, in which rapid changes in an organism spark fantastic changes over a short period of evolutionary history, and many organisms spend the vast majority of their species existence uniformly unchanged.

Of course, if you're quoting one of the pre-eminent evolutionists of our time as an argument against evolution, perhaps you were NOT aware of that.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The history of most fossil species include two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism:

1) Stasis - most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually limited and directionless;

2) Sudden appearance - in any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and ‘fully formed’.

When did God give us the English Bulldog?
When did God give us the French Poodle?
When did God give us the Boston Terrier?